Personally I don't think that its the police that have the problem. It comes down to politics. This is how I see it.

You get a tragic incident like the shootings in Montreal way back in the 80's. You get people who are angered and believe that the whole cause of the incident is the GUN. So they form a special interest lobby group, play on the emotions of the people affected by these incidents and start lobbying the Gov't for stricter gun control. Thus comes in the Gov't. Who are mostly concerned about votes and staying in power than about researching the issue to fiind out its PEOPLE who kill, not Guns that kill. So they make laws and toughen legislation. Then comes in the media who plays on the fear of the viewer. The media who makes a living keeping everyone at a heightened level of fear. so the politians see this and say " Hey everyone is really scared about guns". so they start sending out there forces IE.. customs, RCMP who are only doing their job, to SERVE and protect. to crack down on the so called killers of our children. They come in looking for the GUN, or the toy that looks like the gun. In the end you have a country without any guns being OWNED by any law abiding citizen, the special interest groups are happy because no one OWNS a gun. And the criminals (Who do the killing and crime) still get to import and illegally use the gun to do the killings. So what do we do?